"Our findings support a strong relationship between blood group and diabetes risk, with participants with the O blood type having a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes," said Guy Fagherazzi from Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health in France.

For the study, the researchers collected data from more than 80,000 women in France followed between 1990 and 2008.

The results showed that, compared to women with group O blood, women with group A were 10 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes and those with group B were 21 percent more likely.